SYMON LATHAM'S SECOND BOOK OF FALCONRY 1618. Transcribed by Bob Dalton. Illustrated by David Rampling.

(1618) 2018 new edition. 8vo (166 x 248mm). Ppxiv,118. Colour paintings by David Rampling. Blue boards, spine titled in gilt. Edition limited to 250 numbered copies.

A transcription of Symon Latham's second treatise on falconry, accompanied by some excellent full-page paintings by David Rampling. The book has a second title-page which follows the introductory material. This gives the title as: "Latham's New and Second Book of Falconry. (Concerning the training up of all hawks that were unmentioned in his first book of the Haggard Falcon and Ger Falcon, formerly printed. By Symon Latham. Originally published in London in 1618." "For a very great deal of his falconry life Bob has admired and put into practice, where possible, the writings of Symon Latham, particularly where passage and haggard falcons are concerned. He has always felt that many more falconers would do so if the Elizabethan English, in which Latham was originally printed, were easier to fathom and read. This desire to see Latham reach a wider audience of longwingers grew stronger over the years. Eventually it came about that thought became action and so began a literal labour of love to transcribe the work and thereby bring it to a larger number of falconers. Symon Latham was undoubtedly a highly skilled falconer who fully understood the requirements needed to bring a passage or haggard falcon to the field in tip top mental as well as physical condition. His remarks on matters such as putting a hawk up for the moult or drawing a hawk from the moult and enseaming it are as relevant today as when they were written over four hundred years ago."